In the US presidential elections, most states follow traditional voting patterns while a handful of others are too close to call. Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, to name a few, are critical in this race as their electorates can make or break a party.
Q&A: Why are swing states so important in American elections, especially this year? Why does the battle to win the presidential elections historically occur in certain states and not all over the USA?
What’s more, historically, only one or two states tend to overturn a presidential election. For more on this, we turn to Maxime Asseo.
Q&A: 1. In the final stretch, Donald Trump held rallies in five states – Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida and Biden’s campaign kept a steady focus on Pennsylvania. What was the game plan?
2. Last week, Joe Biden decided to do a late push in Texas and Georgia, usually held by Republicans. Do you think this strategy will indeed trigger the tilt in these states?
3. According to reports, democrats outraised Republicans in swing states during the third quarter. Joe Biden has raised more donations than Donald Trump in the final stretch. Why is that and how will this affect the outcome of the election? How important is fundraising?
4. The Trump’s administration sent 46 billion dollars to Farmers from the Sun Belt and from the Midwest just before the election and 13 billion dollars to Porto Rico in order to influence voters in Florida. At the same time it withheld billions of dollars in coronavirus federal bailouts for blue states. The president even suggested that coronavirus aid should be conditioned on adopting his policies. How did voters perceive this blackmailing tactic? Have these measures ever been used by a sitting president before?
What if Texas turns blue?
Over the past two decades, many overoptimistic democrats predicted the imminent victory of their candidate in this State. What is different this year around? Maxime Dubernet De Boscq has more.
Q&A: 1. Aside from the demographic changes, what are the other causes for a change of heart in swing states?
2. What about broken promises? In 2016, the then candidate Donald Trump promised to bring jobs back to Wisconsin which tilted the state’s vote in his favor. It hasn’t been the case, especially for small farmers who have been the hardest hit. Can Trump recover from this, or will he lose the support of rural Wisconsin?
Maxime Asseo, Maxime Dubernet De Boscq, Juliette Brossault